User blog:GlitterInformer/Doki Doki! Pretty Cure/Glitter Force Doki Doki SDC: Episode 34 (Sub)
Episode 33 (Sub) | Table of Contents | Episode 35 (Sub) Japanese title: “Being a Mom is Really Tough! Ai-chan’s in a Bad Mood!” This episode is just going to be about our five characters trying to cheer up Ai when she’s in a bad mood. But despite the low-key premise, I have high hopes for this episode. Since it’s neither plot-related nor focused on a specific character, this episode should have time for all five characters to shine (Lovely Straight Flush notwithstanding). With that said, let’s see what episode 34 has in store for us! We begin with a quick shot of Ai sitting on a lamppost in the distance. Remember back in episode 6 of Glitter Force Doki Doki, where due to the dub adding an exterior shot of Sea Shell Bay that wasn’t in the original, Dina appears in the background before we see her being born? This episode is where that shot comes from. Anyway, Ai doesn’t matter just yet, because right after panning over Oogai City, we cut to our five heroines, transformed and ready to fight a trash can Jikochuu. The fight is really short; after the Jikochuu shoots trash at Pretty Cure and Pretty Cure dodges, Cure Ace defeats the Jikochuu with Ace Shot. Ira and Marmo are about to teleport away in anger like they usually do. Then, Ai starts crying, which causes Ira and Marmo’s Janergy to suddenly increase. This isn’t the first time Ai has thrown a fit, but it is the first time this has happened. Maybe it’s because of the Blood Rings. Anyway, Ira and Marmo are now a lot more powerful, so Ira shoots a beam at Pretty Cure and Marmo shoots wind at them. Ira and Marmo are about to really kick the girls’ butts when suddenly, for seemingly no reason, Bel snaps his fingers back in the villains’ hideout. This causes Ira and Marmo to be electrocuted by the Blood Rings. Incapacitated, the two villains retreat. What a convenient deus ex machina. I really hope it’s explained later, because if it isn’t, this is just cheap writing. Even after the fight, Ai is still crying, even when Cure Ace takes her down from the lamppost. We get the opening theme and the title card, and then we cut to Mana’s room. Ai isn’t crying anymore, but she’s still clearly in a bad mood. Dabi says there’s nothing wrong with her heartbeat. Arisu uses Lance to summon a milk bottle and try to feed her, but Ai refuses to drink. By the way, this is probably the first time we’ve seen footage of Lance being used to summon an item from Ai. Each of the fairies has something unique they say when they summon things. Lance says, “Ransu-su!”. “Ransu” is just “Lance” in a Japanese accent. Anyway, the girls still don’t know why Ai is upset or why her crying caused Ira and Marmo to get stronger. They keep trying more things to cheer Ai up; Mana plays peek-a-boo, Rikka uses Raquel to summon a toy, Makoto sings a lullaby, and the four fairies pretend to be a choo-choo train. But it only makes Ai angrier. Later that day, Rikka’s mom enters the Aida family restaurant and finds the girls exhausted. When she asks what’s wrong, Rikka and Mana tell her they were trying to take care of Ai, but they couldn’t cheer her up, and she ended up crying until she fell asleep. So, it seems like the parents of the Cures know about Ai. Do they know she has wings and can fly? Or did none of them ever see Ai in person? Anyway, Rikka asks her mom for help. Even though Rikka’s mom is a pediatrician, even she doesn’t know everything about babies. They can’t talk, so when they’re upset, all they can do is cry. Rikka’s mom says that when Rikka was a baby, she also cried a lot. Rikka’s mom carried her around the city all night to get her to calm down, but she just wouldn’t. It caused Rikka’s mom to feel like she’d failed as a parent. Mana, Makoto, and Arisu are shocked at the idea of Rikka crying. And in case you’re wondering about Aguri, she’s there, too. She just hasn’t said or done anything for the past minute or so. Mana asks her mom what she was like as a baby. It turns out that although Mana was easy to take care of as a baby, she was incredibly difficult as a toddler. She ran away, tried to jump from the top of the jungle gym, and even brought a horde of insects into the house. Later, Mana is helping her mother with the dishes because she wants to make up for how much trouble she caused when she was little. Mana’s mom tells her that even though it was difficult at times to take care of her, it was thanks to her that she learned how to be a mother. She then gives Mana some advice: always smile in front of a baby. If you look worried in front of a baby, the baby will become worried, too. Then, Mana hears Ai crying from upstairs, and Mana’s mom tells her to go take care of Ai while she finishes washing the dishes. Meanwhile, at Rikka’s house, Rikka looks through a photo album and sees that in most of the photos of her as a baby, she was crying and throwing tantrums. She apologizes to her mom for being such a difficult baby. To Rikka’s surprise, her mom suddenly gives her a hug. Rikka’s embarrassed, but even though she’s no longer a little kid, her mom still sees her as her precious child. Back when she was little, Rikka’s mom would sometimes leave Rikka with her dad so she didn’t have to deal with her crying all the time. But she always came back because she worried about Rikka and always wanted to be with her. Much like her mom, Rikka realizes she wants to be by Ai’s side and help her. She gets her mom’s permission to go back to Mana’s house and help Ai. So, it seems like this episode is focused on both Mana and Rikka. I like that we’re getting more development between the two instead of focusing on just one character. At the beginning of the show, Rikka felt insecure and inferior to Mana. But now, we see them both as equals. I also like that we’re finding out more about the two girls’ moms and what it was like taking care of them. But with all this emphasis on what it’s like to be a good parent, I have to ask… where the heck is Joe? I don’t think we’ve seen him at all since episode 24->18. We’ve seen Ai quite a bit, but Joe, her supposed father, hasn’t been seen at all taking care of her. Ai has essentially been abandoned by her father and put in the hands of children. Where does she even sleep at night? It’s no wonder Ai’s been crying so much with a father like that… Anyway, back to the show. That night, Mana has almost gotten Ai to sleep, but just as she’s about to put Ai in her crib, she starts crying again. Just then, Rikka arrives and offers to take over for the night while Mana gets some rest. Eventually, Rikka falls asleep as well, but Ai finally stops crying at last. We cut to the Jikochuu hideout, where Ira and Marmo get angry at Bel for making them teleport back just as they were about to defeat Pretty Cure. Bel simply says that they went out without his permission. So, I guess he had no idea that they were fighting Pretty Cure at the moment, and it was a stroke of bad luck for the Jikochuu Trio. Anyway, Ira starts to criticize Bel more, but when he sees Bel about to snap again, he quickly backpedals so he doesn’t get electrocuted. Marmo then offers him juice. So, it’s really clear that Ira and Marmo are now thoroughly subservient to Bel, just as the three were before to Regina. It’s interesting to see a changing power dynamic with the villains. Bel tells Ira to go out there and make Ai cry again so he can get a power boost like last time. Ira starts to complain that he has to do it, but once again, he stops when threatened with electrocution and obediently teleports away. We get the eyecatches. Then, we cut to Mana and Rikka sitting outside with Ai the next day. Arisu, Makoto, and Aguri come by and Arisu notices that Rikka seems to be tired. Rikka insists that she’s fine and tells the group to help make Ai happy. Ai isn’t crying anymore, but she’s still cranky. Mana throws a ball at Ai, and Rikka and Makoto blow bubbles. Still, nothing works. Aguri worries that the Jikochuu will come again and make use of Ai’s bad mood like they did last time. Mana tells Aguri to smile and not look so worried, or else Ai will be worried, too. Reinvigorated, the five girls go off to try more things to cheer Ai up. We cut to our victim of the week, a random kid upset that he failed his test. Even though he doesn’t have his license yet, he wants to ride his motorcycle and run away. This selfish thought allows Ira to turn his Psyche into a motorcycle Jikochuu that Ira can ride. Sharuru senses the Jikochuu just as Ira rides in on it. As always, the girls transform. Well… except for Aguri. She needs Ai’s power in order to transform into Cure Ace, but Ai refuses to do it. Ira bends over backward laughing at how lame it is that Aguri can’t transform. But this is his undoing because he falls and has to pull himself back up onto the Jikochuu. Ira’s fall causes Ai to laugh, putting her in a good enough mood that she’s willing to help Aguri transform. Cure Heart does her catchphrase as always. What’s more, Ai is still laughing at Ira. This gets Ira angry, so he revs up the Jikochuu. This causes it to say, “Babababababa!” over and over. Apparently, it’s so loud that it causes Ai to cover her ears and cry again. Once again, Ira overflows with Janergy because of Ai’s crying. The Jikochuu is powered up, too, and it easily beats the girls up. With them incapacitated, Ira drives around Ai, getting her to cry even more. Cure Diamond eventually gets up, unwilling to let this continue any longer. While Diamond runs to Ai and holds her in her arms, the other four Cures keep the motorcycle from running her over. Diamond apologizes to Ai and says that she must be terrified due to all of the scary things happening around her. She tells Ai that no matter what, she and the other Pretty Cures will be there for Ai. This speech is what finally gets through to Ai. She smiles, causing Ira and the Jikochuu to become weaker. With Ai taken care of, we get to see Diamond’s third attack, just like we did with Ace and Rosetta. Diamond’s attack is called, oddly enough, Diamond Swirkle. Apparently, a swirkle is a beverage sold at a restaurant called Tully’s, and it looks like a smoothie. “Swirkle” is a portmanteau of “swirl” and “circle”, which fits Diamond’s attack pretty well because it summons a circular pool of water that swirls the Jikochuu around really quickly. The oddly-named attack from Diamond gives Heart and company the opportunity to finish the fight with Lovely Straight Flush. It’s pretty fitting in this episode that Diamond and Heart finish the Jikochuu together because this episode has focused on the two girls working together to care for Ai. Ira teleports away as usual, and after everything goes back to normal, Ai falls into a contented sleep. But the girls aren’t out of the woods yet. Makoto and Aguri point out that they still don’t know how Ai is connected to the villains and that this could still happen again. Suddenly, the mirror Lovead that Makoto used back in episode 24->18 glows. Just like in that episode, Makoto uses it on Dabi and summons a mirror that allows her to talk to Princess Ange. But before we hear the princess say anything, the episode ends. Overall: '''When I first heard the synopsis for this episode, it sounded kind of boring. Then, I realized that an Ai-focused episode could give all five girls time to shine and interact with each other. And although Makoto and Aguri played a bit of an important role by being the most concerned about the link between Ai and the villains, the real stars of the show were Mana and Rikka. It was really nice seeing Rikka in the spotlight again. Rikka is the most down-to-earth of the five girls. She isn’t super-serious like Makoto and Aguri, and she isn’t always cheerful like Mana and Arisu. She’s just a normal, reserved girl who gets embarrassed but still does her best at her dream to be a doctor. Here, we see her get better at taking care of little children, which will be important if she follows in her mother’s steps as a pediatrician. But Rikka and Mana weren’t the only interesting ones. Bel is also fun to watch, as he’s once again showing just how vile of a villain he can be. The increasingly lopsided power dynamic between him and his two teammates is causing a lot of tension that is sure to cause an explosion any episode now. Though now that we’ve been getting more focus on the Jikochuu Trio, I’m wondering where the heck Regina has been this whole time. We haven’t seen her since episode 23->17, which was over ten episodes ago. She was such a well-written villain with a huge impact on Mana’s life, and now she’s just gone like she never existed. I’m also disappointed that we didn’t get more interaction between Diamond and Ira. This episode doesn’t even once acknowledge that Rikka befriended Ira and had to accept that he’s her enemy again. Although Diamond did talk to Ira this episode, she had no hang-ups about fighting him and treated him as nothing more than the evil villain he’s always been. She may as well never have nursed him back to health at all. Finally, despite the awesome combat of last episode, this episode’s fight scene goes back to the usual mediocre quality of fighting animation in this show. The fight this episode didn’t focus on the physical combat like last episode did but instead on Diamond calming Ai down. Thus, Diamond doesn’t come across as anywhere near the powerful warrior that Rosetta does thanks to last episode. '''Next episode: While the girls teach Ai to brush her teeth, Makoto has to face her fear of the dentist! Category:Blog posts